Julien Benda Philosopher

• Gender: Male
• Citizenship: France
• Born: Dec 26, 1867
• Died: Jun 7, 1956

Julien Benda (December 26, 1867, Paris—June 7, 1956, Fontenay-aux-Roses) was a French philosopher and novelist. He remains famous for his essay The Betrayal of the Intellectuals.

Born into a Jewish family, Benda became a master of French belles-lettres. Yet he believed that science was superior to literature as a method of inquiry. He disagreed with Henri Bergson, the leading light of French philosophy of his day.

Benda is now mostly remembered for his short 1927 book La Trahison des Clercs, a work of considerable influence. The title of the English translation was The Betrayal of the Intellectuals, although "The Treason of the Learned" would have been more accurate. This polemical essay argued that French and German intellectuals in the 19th and 20th century had often lost the ability to reason dispassionately about political and military matters, instead becoming apologists for crass nationalism, warmongering and racism. Benda reserved his harshest criticisms for his fellow Frenchmen Charles Maurras and Maurice Barrès. Benda defended the measured and dispassionate outlook of classical civilization, and the internationalism of traditional Christianity, which he understood well.